by Eileen Keim

All libraries have their share of tedious tasks. At a Talking Book library, we face the daily chore of opening, inspecting, rewinding, and repacking every returned book. Our circulation averages between 8,000 and 10,000 books a month. Even with high-speed cassette rewinding equipment, it's a task that takes hours every day and cuts into real reader service time.

That's how it used to be. Then, about two years ago, we were contacted by Work Opportunities Unlimited (WOU) seeking to place a seriously handicapped person - physical handicaps and a development disability - in a worklike setting one to two hours a week, with an aide, at no expense to us. After some staff discussion, we agreed to try it for a month. The client/aide team arrived on schedule and were introduced both to staff and to the job of checking/rewinding. We reviewed the work for a few visits, and the few problems were quickly straightened out. The WOU team began coming three mornings a week, and it really lightened our load.

The WOU aide spoke to other clients, and before long we had a group of eight - four clients and their aides - coming every morning and most afternoons to open, check, rewind, and repack cassette books. They find notes from readers and bring them to staff. They pull out and sort damaged books for our attention. They stack the rewound books on shelves for us to check in and shelve efficiently. We get to work with our readers instead of inspecting and rewinding books!

Work Opportunities Unlimited is a program that developed after the closing of the Laconia State School, in response to the need to integrate mentally retarded people back into the communities of our state. Group homes and families provide shelter, healthy meals, and guidance in grooming, but usually they are not able to provide much in the way of day activities. Like the rest of us, these folks need a way to organize their time - and a sense of being useful in the world. WOU and its staff provide that, and more.

While clients may not really understand what our library does, they can see the piles of things-to-do get smaller, and the piles of things-done get bigger. They get a good deal of satisfaction from that. Each day we greet our volunteer helpers warmly and by name when they arrive, and say thank you when they leave. That's our part, and our volunteers get real satisfaction from being thanked. The aides keep the clients on task and handle any personal difficulties that may arise, while checking with staff if any unusual book problems are found. Our relationship with WOU has enabled us to get Monday's returned books on the shelves by Tuesday, ready for remailing on Wednesday, without every staff member spending at least two hours daily on inspection.

WOU is funded by the Vocational Rehabilitation arm of the New Hampshire Department of Education. You may contact them through your VR office or at their Concord headquarters at 226-8609.